When someone comes to seek help for an alcohol or drug problem, the mental and emotional tug-of-war has generally become exhausting. People start consciously questioning their relationship to substances after varying lengths of time or consequences. The reasons someone might seek professional help include: a family history of addiction; changes in behavior or functioning; family, friends or work prompting the individual; a burgeoning acknowledgement of the role substances play in someone’s life; a vague desire for something to be different, while not consciously connecting present symptoms or problems to alcohol or drug use; or, an awareness that substances are not effective as a coping strategy and a desire to learn new ways to handle people and situations.
We will assess your relationship to substances and the function they may be serving in your life. There are many pieces of this puzzle and they may include: family history of addiction, anxiety, depression; a chronological review or timeline of use and abuse; a look at how one’s social network, work, or family fits into the puzzle; legal and physical consequences and developing an individual plan which often changes over time. If a referral to more intensive treatment is indicated, I will help with that process.
If someone is clean and sober and comes for counseling, we will look at: developing a social support network; continuing to cement the building blocks of personal, emotional, physical and spiritual self-care; developing and enhancing tools for coping with troublesome or newly discovered feelings and patterns of communication; exploring automatic thoughts and assumptions and looking at alternative interpretations; learning to create a space between thoughts or feelings and an immediate reaction; exploring the impact an individual’s addiction has had on family, friends and coworkers; and working on identifying past self-destructive patterns of behaviors in relationships; and with this acknowledgement and acceptance learning to have more nurturing and self-fulfilling relationships. In assessing a continued commitment to sobriety, we can explore participation in a 12-Step program or other support groups that may serve to bolster sobriety.
